WP: White House Briefing - Froomkin: An Unhappy Union

[Pirate Smile]

An Unhappy Union

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, January 27, 2006; 2:21 PM

President Bush will have two major audiences when he delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday night, and one of them is a lot more disappointed in him than the other.
But for a few anemic signs of independence, the Republican-controlled Congress seems happy following his lead. Not so the American public.

A slew of polls are out today telling the story of a people who are decidedly dour about Bush's performance at almost every level. One suddenly mounting area of concern: ethics. His last source of strength: national security. But even that is something of a mixed bag.

Widespread Discontent
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Ronald Brownstein writes in the Los Angeles Times that Bush "faces widespread discontent over his job performance and the nation's direction that could threaten his party in the 2006 election, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found."
Bush's approval rating came in at 43 percent, his weakest showing ever in that particular poll.


-snip-

(finally, someone frames the question the correct way)

Yet, as far as I know, none of these polls ask whether the public thinks Bush was wrong to embark on this program purely on his own executive authority, rather than asking Congress or the courts for their approval.
Critics of the program are not questioning the underlying intent -- to eavesdrop on the communication of suspected terrorists -- they're challenging Bush's unilateral authority to do so, without judicial or congressional approval. There's also a concern that, because of the lack of checks and balances, the program may be straying more widely than has been publicly acknowledged.

If you pit the Constitution against fighting terrorism, who wins?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[Cha]

1. Yeah, who benefited from

9/11? The bush regime that's who..who was asleep at the wheel when 9/11 went down?..the bush regime.

[AX10]

2. Good article.

Repubs will be cheering for him, not because they care for him, but because they are blind idealouges, the Dems won't applaud for him and the American public is against him.
It's going to be a long night for him.

[emulatorloo]

3. let me snip one more great one

<snip>

Leonard Pitts Jr. writes in his Miami Herald column: "Karl Rove said in a speech last week that this year's midterm election will be about security. So you know it will be about fear. . . .

"The choice is simple: remain true to the ideals that have guided us for 230 years or surrender them on the altar of expedience because we were too scared to live up to them."

<snip?

[Nitrogenica]

4. If he would have destroyed Al Qaeda, Bush would have nothing.

His policies always benefit rich people. The bills that passed Congress were written by corporations and suck money from the lower income Americans. He is destroying the middle class. He gives tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs. he completely failed to mount an effective relief for victims of katrina for 5 days, sending armies with guns instead of food and water. These are losing policies. He is a failure, through and through.

Fortunately for Bush, he's too stupid to actually destroy Al Qaeda, and America (the righties) WHIMPERS! The term ENDLESS WAR that is accepted by people in our Country reflects that whimper. *SIGH* I guess we'll NEVER defeat them is the attitude of some of these righties, as if it is an impossible task. So perplexed as to why 9/11 happened, yet oblivious to the memo "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE US". What if Gore was in office when that happened, what would these so-called Americans think about that!?

Of course I have the feeling that Gore would not have spent so many days on vacation in 2001, and perhaps would have been able to prevent 9/11. Al Gore wouldn't act like this moran did the morning of 9/11.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.htm

If the right keeps bringing up 9/11 long enough, the events of that day might just bite them in the ass, instead of justifying illegal spying.



on edit THIS WAS MY 1,000th POST...YAAAY!!